I Know What You Did Last Summer Review: A Violent, Though Familiar Legacy Sequel with a Divisive Ending

Timing is everything, and that certainly rings true for I Know What You Did Last Summer (IKWYDLS). I’m talking about the original 1997 movie, which came out at the right time after a certain Scream revitalised the oversaturated slasher genre back to life, well, for better or worse. Frankly, the first movie was a formulaic but well-paced slasher horror that fulfilled its usual genre criteria: fresh-faced and good-looking young stars, a killer premise and a formidable antagonist with a unique trait, which in this case: a bucket hat, a fisherman’s slicker and armed with a fish hook.

It made bank, and an immediate sequel followed the year after, only to result in an inferior and annoying-as-hell second movie. That movie concluded with an open finale, suggesting the seemingly unstoppable Ben Willis, a.k.a. The Fisherman, is still alive. Or is he? It would take nearly three decades before the franchise finally made amends by giving us a direct sequel to the first two movies, unlike the third and unfortunately standalone I Always Know What You Did Last Summer, which was non-canonical.

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who previously co-wrote Thor: Love and Thunder and helmed Netflix’s Do Revenge, she treads familiar ground for the story right from the beginning, which echoes the 1997 original. It all started with lots of fun and get-together as the movie follows a group of five friends — Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) — going for a joyride on the night of the Fourth of July in Southport to watch fireworks.

And as in the first movie, an accident takes place, which kills the driver, and they choose to cover up and keep mum about this, like it never happened. Well, a year later, this is where the nightmare slowly creeps up on them, beginning by traumatising Danica with a greeting card with an intimidating handwritten message. At first, it’s fun trying to play a guessing game to find out who the killer is who’s been stalking them. Could it be one of them? Or someone close to the deceased driver who died in the accident that they had never met before?

Robinson soon levels up the stakes when the killer starts killing the victims one by one. The killer in question dresses as same as the one who tormented Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her friends nearly thirty years ago, ending up with most of them dead. Julie and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) remain the only survivors of the 1997 Southport massacre, who have since moved on with their lives. Julie’s now a professor who deals with trauma studies, while Ray’s a bar owner. They eventually reunite under the forced circumstances after Ava and her friends seek their help.

IKWYDLS follows most of the storytelling beats of the original with a few tweaks here and there. The result is rather formulaic, even though it does have its moments, notably Robinson going for the jugular when it comes to the violent and gory kills.

Interestingly, the killer isn’t just restricted to using the signature hook to dispatch the victims, but also uses other weapons, such as a harpoon at one point. The killer doesn’t speak a word for most parts of the movie — all silent and intimidating, whose only goal is to get rid of the chosen victims with no mercy given. The intimidating part is especially true with Robinson emphasising on the killer’s presence by the sound of the footsteps alone.

Too bad IKWYDLS nearly derails with its ill-advised third act — a twist ending that eventually reveals the identity of the killer. What I can say here is that it leaves me frustrated rather than dumbfounded. The kind of WTF moment that you either like it or hate it, which to me, leans towards the latter. The cast, mixing the new and older generation of actors, with Chase Sui Wonders’ Ava leaving quite an impression here, while I can’t help but see her nearly identical to Leighton Meester of TV’s Gossip Girl fame.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, who reprised her role as Julie, undoubtedly brought back the nostalgia of seeing the actress again in this legacy sequel. I wish I could say the same for Freddie Prinze Jr., where his acting after all these decades looks as if it has grown increasingly rusty.